DARIEN -- If Tuesday afternoon's clash between Ridgefield and Darien was in anyway indicative of what's to come in the postseason, lacrosse fans should be in for a treat.

Darien, which did not trail in the game, got the jump on Ridgefield in the first quarter and held off the Tigers in the second half, defending its home turf with a 9-7 win while handing Ridgefield its first FCIAC loss.

"I think the main thing we did was come out with more energy than we had in the past. We come out strong, but then our energy kind of dips at one point in the game, and teams capitalize on that," Darien goalie Phil Huffard said. "Today I think we just had strong energy all the way from the first through the fourth."

In a relatively low-scoring second half, the Wave (8-5, 8-1 FCIAC) and Tigers (11-2, 9-1 FCIAC) combined for just five goals, but two of those belonged to Darien's Ian Burgoyne. Burgoyne's first marker opened up the second half scoring exactly midway through the third quarter, while his second gave Darien an 8-6 lead early in the fourth.

"Everything moves so fast out there, but on the second one I know Peter (Lindley) had me there, and we worked against their zone all through practice yesterday," Burgoyne said. "We made some great passes and stuck our shots against a great goalie, and hopefully we'll see them again."

A mere 19 seconds after Burgoyne's second marker however, Ridgefield's Brett Baker scored his third goal to cut the Tiger deficit to 8-7.

After nearly five more minutes of scoreless play and several clutch saves by Huffard and Ridgefield netminder Conor Shannon, Darien boosted its lead back to two when John Reed assisted Jack Kniffen with 4:41 remaining.

Leading by two, Darien got possession with three minutes remaining and ran the clock down to 47 seconds before Ridgefield got it back, but the Tigers took just one more shot before time expired.

"I don't think it was just the first quarter; they just outplayed us, as simple as I think that they just wanted it more than we did," Ridgefield coach Roy Colsey said. "If you can't get possession of the ball, no matter what kind of offense you run or what type of offensive players you have, they're not scoring. And (Darien's) goalie played well. The few chances we had, he turned away pretty easily."

Darien started strong by scoring four out of the first five goals. Peter Lindley opened the scoring after receiving a pass from Kniffen and making a move around a Ridgefield defender, and Reed scored two goals in 25 seconds to run Darien's lead to 3-0 with 5:03 left in the first quarter.

"John Reed really got us into it. I think John went out there with a chip on his shoulder," Burgoyne said. "I thought that if he was doing that for us that we should be able to do something for him too. Ridgefield is a fantastic team, and to make a statement like this with our first big win is something else."

Ridgefield's Cal Dearth put his team on the board with 3:48 left in the opening quarter, Darien's Kevin Seiler increased Darien's lead to 4-1 with 2:52 remaining and Ridgefield's Simon Mathias scored with 2:17 left in the first quarter to cut Darien's lead to 4-2 heading into the second.

"I'm not saying the ball was bouncing into (Darien's) sticks, but that's how it felt," Colsey said. "Every time there was a ground ball they won it and we didn't. Give them credit. They had a good gameplan. I'm just a little disappointed in our effort."

Ridgefield won the second quarter 3-2, highlighted by a pair of goals by Baker, as Darien took a 6-5 lead into the break. Also scoring for Ridgefield in the period was Ryan Dunn, while Darien's two markers came courtesy of Seiler and Lindley. Ridgefield pulled even for the first and only time on Baker's second goal of the quarter, which made the score 5-5.

Huffard came up with six saves in the second half while only permitting a pair of goals, keying the Blue Wave's ability to hold off the Tigers and denying a potential game-tier on several occasions.

"We've been pretty strong in the FCIAC," Huffard said. "Obviously, out of conference we've had a couple losses that have kind of tested our morale, but I think we came back and we're ready to make a run."